The Sinister Side of the Benefit System

I know what you’re thinking! You’re about to read an article that you know will reach down into the very pit of your rationalism, as you’ve read many times before as it’s about the ever controversial benefits system, ripping it out of the very depths of your level of understanding, leaving you with nothing but blind anger and frustration. You think you’re about to read yet another story about people who have never worked a day in their life, are claiming every benefit under the sun (mostly under false or unclarified circumstances) and have a bigger TV, a better car, have more holidays than you have hot dinners and they still claim they can’t work or they simply continue to reproduce. Funnily enough, this article is not about that side of the benefits system. Simply because there’s nothing sinister about that as we all know this is the reality of the benefits system across the country.

The side of the benefits system that is slowly but surely being dragged out of the shadows is actually people that have invested into the tax system over many years of hard work, yet during troublesome times with redundancies, business closures and lack of hours to work, those people just need a small return on their investment, to no avail. The Department of Work & Pensions are the enforcers, and David Cameron is the ‘mastermind’ behind just another relentless attempt to make innocent people suffer for the mistakes of the DWP allowing the system to be raped for so long and now they’re on a mission of redemption. And who can these innocent people turn to? Nobody.

Mark Twain once said “If voting made a difference, we wouldn’t be allowed to do it”, which is very true. As there’s not a single political party who’s been totally transparent in regards to their intentions. They may display a convincing pitch, like brilliant salesmen creating the illusion you’re buying into something is nothing but beneficial to you, then, as like every other human being on earth not having the time to read the small print, realise you’ve been sucked into a false sense of security. I’ve always wondered if these people whom I consider brilliant, deceiving, manipulative con artists we know as the Government, are they born Politicians, or do they become a Politician?

The benefits system is nothing more than a labyrinth of flaws, fraud, smoke and mirrors even though it was initially a system developed to help people in need. It’s meant to be a security measure for when our walls of stability (work) break down, we have the protection of the benefits system until those walls are rebuilt. Just like most things in such a developed society that we’re blessed with, that’s unfortunately not the case.

When we go to work to pay our rent, mortgage, electricity, gas, TV Licence, we know what our hard earned money is contributing towards. We pay bills we don’t have a choice for, such as VAT, council tax, car tax, income tax, stamp duty, etc and yet as we travel around, you honestly wonder where the money is issued to.

The benefits system had been relied upon more over the last 6 years than ever before due to the recession, yet there’s more people below the poverty line than ever before. There’s been enough money injected into the benefits system that every citizen in the UK (within justifiable circumstances) should be relieved of worry about whether they can eat today or not.

A particular someone I know personally has worked every day for the last 35+ years since he came to this country. Quite recently he lost his job unexpectedly, so, for the first time he’s needed to go on benefits until he found another job. What can only be considered an interrogation ensued to assess his eligibility to receive benefits. This I have no qualms with. In fact I’m glad people are so strenuously assessed yet it begs the question as to how there’s people out there who have never worked a day in their life (excluding genuinely, extremely disabled people) are able to continue to receive benefits? It also begs the question as to how immigrants get benefits even when they’re in work? Anyway, we’ll not go into that.

A plan was then put in place to structure as to what he was going to do to find a job. This person I’m talking about is old school, he’s never looked at a computer, never mind used one. He’s not even accustomed to the process of having a CV. Back in his day, you walked into somewhere and asked if there was any work going. So I offered assistance in applying online for suitable jobs to help increase the chance of being successful. The Jobcentre then informed me that I should record all activity on their largely questionable and criticised Universal Jobmatch website. An agreement is then put in place as to how many jobs you should apply for both online and handing out CV’s, as long as you adhere to that agreement, record it all, then you can continue to get your benefits. 6 months pass, due to this person I refer to living in quite a rural area and unable to drive, finding a full time job with convenient hours has been difficult. But, we’ve fulfilled the agreement the full duration from his initial application for benefits. Then with no warning, he was sanctioned. This is the term used where benefits are stopped for a certain time period then you have to reapply again. I then asked him the purpose the Jobcentre stated behind the sanction, which a particular employee he’s had conflict with before, said was because there wasn’t enough job searching activity. I then researched over the last 6 months of recorded activity which clearly displays there have been the minimum of the agreement in place, if not a hell of a lot more. So he went back and expressed his frustration as we’ve continued on in the same manner for 6 months, where no concerns were raised regarding the job searching, nothing was said or nobody was warned there wasn’t enough activity but yet, they feel justified in cutting off this man’s small supply of money to be able to eat. He then went to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau office, which they wrote a letter of appeal, and this same woman from the jobcentre, refused to accept it. Last time I checked, legally, you can’t do that.

The plight of this always hard working man continues as the Government cuts off the means to supply those who have contributed to their system, yet they continue to feed the mouths of those who rape it, which actually includes themselves. They enforce such measures on the Jobcentres to penalise innocent people, to help decrease the figures of people on benefits to make them look good especially with upcoming elections with no regard as to who suffers.

The Government continue to preach of their improvements yet omit details on consistent failures. They say more and more people are back in employment, yet they don’t state anything regarding the proportion of those people who are on 0 hour contracts.

This is the sinister side of the benefits system that is progressively getting more and more common. Unjustified sanctions to people who actually deserve help from the Government. If they’re willing to govern the country for their ego, personal finances, how competent they are on paper via statistics with little regard of actual reality, depriving this man, who is just one of many, the ability to eat as he’s unfortunately found himself in a position that was of no fault of his own, what other sort of deprivation and desperation do we have to look forward to when we require a return of our investment into this corrupt system?